Interesting interview on the Daily Show with David Perlmutter whose book, Blog Wars, looks at the rise of bloggers in the American political environment. Interesting - especially to those of us involved in political blogging in New Zealand.
If the Standard was a 60s pop/rock band, all_your_base would be ‘the funny one’, and he’s really out-done himself this time with his pitch to replace John Ansell as National’s propaganda man.
NZblogsphere is a commendable attempt to catalogue New Zealand’s political blogs. However, and no insult is meant to Tumeke! by this, the ranking system is a mess. For no apparent reason, the blogs are scored on:
the number of unique visitors they get each day from people with the Alexa Toolbar installed, or unique visitors according to the site’s meter if available.
+ the number of posts a week (not a day?, not a month? Not a fortnight?)
+ the incoming links (number of blogs linking to your blog in the last 6 months) by Technorati
+incoming links as scored by Truth Laid Bear (many blogs, like us, are not signed up with them, so score = 0)
I can’t for the life of me figure out why an incoming link every 6 months should be worth 2 posts a week or two unique visitors a day. I don’t know what an appropriate conversion rate would be, indeed it’s impossible to determine an objective one, but this rate is just arbitrary.
Furthermore, what is a unique visitor? An IP address, yet many organistions share one IP address between many internet users, while many individuals go through several IP addresses a day (at work, at home, Bluetooth, and more if they have dial-up). Simply counting up the number of IP addresses a day does not tell you how many people are visiting a site.
The major problem I think, however, is relying on Alexa’s ranking of sites for the bulk of the points in each blog’s ‘score’.
The Alexa system works by recording the sites visited and page-views from everybody who has an Alexa toolbar running and tabulating them to make a rough guide to who’s going where on the internet. But there’s something weird when you look at the stats Alexa produces. The numbers jag about hugely between days – look at this graph of kiwiblog’s ‘rank’ over the last month:
Note that the numbers jag between only a few levels and they supposedly represent huge changes in readership (at a ranking 0f 72,195, Kiwiblog is credited with 7000 unique viewers, but when it dips below 100,000 the readership is supposedly half that or less). But what it’s actually measuring is how many people with Alexa toolbar visit and how many pages they view on any given day. So how many people have it?
Bugger all. According to Wikipedia: “By early 2005 there had been over 10 million downloads of the toolbar, according to Alexa. But the company does not provide info on how many of them are actually used. According to one estimate made in March 2003, Alexa had a sample size of 180,000.”
10 million is nothing worldwide, 180,000 is significantly less than nothing, and there is nothing to suggest they’ve got much bigger since 2005. Assuming proportionality, there could be as few as 120 Alexa toolbar users in New Zealand, and most of them are unlikely to read political blogs regularly (according to an Alexa comment site most users are “webmasters and marketing junkies”). What this means is that very, very few readers of political blogs in New Zealand will have Alexa and it just depends what sites those few people happen to visit on any given day. That’s going to produce the huge daily variations we saw in kiwiblog’s graph and advantage sites that happen to be favoured by one of these few Alexa users.
Alexa may be useful for major international sites but it says nothing about readership for sites as small as New Zealand political blogs (except giving a very rough indication of change over time). Nzblogosphere should give away the Alexa toolbar as a measure of blogs’ performance. A far more accurate and fair solution would be to ask those blogs who wish to be ranked to sign up to a program like google analytics and make the results available.
So what’s the solution? I would suggest hits is the only viable measure of a site’s popularity. Hits will go up as more people visit a site. Ok, there will be more hits than individuals visiting and hits probably actually rise faster than number of individuals visiting because more visitors mean more comments meaning people come back time more often but that doesn’t matter – each blog is subject to that same effect (unless they ban commenting) – and if the object is to measure blog’s relative ‘influence’ having multiple pageviews from the same person each day is just as valuable as a person who comes once a day and only looks at the front page.
My suggestion to nzblogosphere: drop everything else, and just count hits. Tell blogs that if they want to be ranked they need to have a hit counter that you can access, either from their blog or a meter site.
It’s quite artful, really, the way Davey can slip some ego into any topic.
Take his latest post, which begins:
“The Hive has been running a series of posts suggesting Cullen will roll Clark. I offer no opinion on that probability of that scenario, but they have asked me for my thoughts on who would be the best Deputy to a PM Cullen” His subsequently opines at length.
Now, if you’re like me your first question is ‘what’s the Hive?’ Turns out its some poxy little right blog.
Anyway, they’ve got a post titled “Who will be Cullen’s deputy?”. Apparently, they think he’s going to stage a coup against Labour’s most popular leader since Lange’s early days. This being the Michael Cullen who has never expressed any leadership aspirations since 1996, who has been Clark’s faithful deputy for longer than the last half dozen National leadership combinations combined and who is widely expected to be nearing retirement.
At the end they say “We would be interested in the views of others - Kiwiblog, Whaleoil, No Minister, The Standard, Keeping Stock etc.- who do you think would be best [as Cullen's deputy]?”
And it’s this, a mention in a list, that Davey plays as if he has been singled out as an oracle by other righties in awe of him.
I emailed the Standard to see if they were replying. Their response: “what’s the Hive?”
The Press has an interesting piece on political blogging today. A good history and spends a good length of time looking at those two radical upsets: Kiwiblogblog and The Standard.
Farrar deems us to have gone “feral” in recent times. Your faithful correspondent is quoted calling Farrar a racist for his dog-whistling on immigration and Paul Henry disgusting for his comments that Somalis are a problem in New Zealand.
Let me explain why I chose those words: they are accurate. The writers here at KBB, as you have seen, are more than capable of advanced political analysis, drawing out of subtexts, undertaking philosophical discussions (the others go over my head when they get into that), constructing complex economic, social, moral arguments, we provide more wit and humour than most, and more detailed statistical argument than any other blog in New Zealand.
But sometimes you’ve got to call a spade a spade.
Farrar’s comments were a classic dog-whistle to the racists and bigots that inhabit his comment page. Failed National party candidate Paul Henry said “Somalis are a particular problem in this country”, thereby damning an entire people without cause, that is disgusting, it makes me angry even now to think of a man who is meant to be a journalist giving air to such baseless, racist prejudices.
Yes, Farrar was playing the race card. Yes, Paul Henry was disgusting. And I am proud to have said so, especially when others fail to.
Later in the article, we and the Standard are referred to as “Labour with its claws out” I like the imagery but I have to say, once more with feeling, we are not Labour. I personally do not vote Labour and, as far as I know, the others have no formal links either. And the Standard is of the labour movement, not the Labour party. Journalists would do well to familiarise themselves with the difference (especially as many are union members).
Finally, Farrar’s post on this is hilarious in the clumsy way he pretends the Press article doesn’t mention us or the Standard. Have some more respect for your audience, Davey. And this “the motivation from some on the left is purely negative - they hate blogging but feel they have to do it, to counter the ‘right’”. You couldn’t be more wrong: we love this and we put a great deal of effort into it, that’s why we and the Standard have come from nothing in a few short months to be in the top ten blogs in the country. That’s why more people are reading us while fewer are bothering with Farrar’s ego-site.
(the Standard refers to us, now we refer to them, sprout and bean refer to us both, a leftie blog mobius strip)
Tumeke’s latest rankings are out and our little blog has jumped 8 places to be in 8th place. Great stuff!
Thanks to all the regulars who pop by often and generally make damn-smart comments. We’ve got a couple of trolls, well managed, but are otherwise spoiled by the patronage of sensible, experienced and tolerant commenters who’re happy to speak their peace (or is it ‘piece’) and listen to others. Precisely what we aspired too (and by the way, we’re looking for another contributor, not necessarily of the same political persuasion, as some of our team are struggling with the work/blog balance - if you’re interested contact me at mardypantsmail@gmail.com or zos at zosterpox@hotmail.com).
Congrats to Tumeke’s team too. Span used to do a bit of work tracking the development of NZ blogs but with her retirement there’s been a gap which we’re very pleased Tumeke has filled. The current rankings are interesting for appearing to neatly balance left and right blogs down the order. Davey’s still on top with Publicaddress in second and we’re pleased to see the Standard’s still going strong… one ahead of us in fact.
Just to book-end Mardy’s piece on Farrar’s ‘discovery’ that The Standard has links to the Labour Party. I thought the loud tutting noises coming from Kiwiblog on this issue were way too over the top.
Farrar’s allegation that The Standard has links to the Labour Party must stand as one of the most unremarkable statements in the universe. For crying out loud, The Standard has named itself after the Labour Party’s old official newspaper! So, I am utterly astounded the rocket-scientists over at Kiwiblog have taken this long to work out The Standard’s sympathies.
Surely, The Standard is continuing a tradition of party-oriented blogging that includes Farrar himself! Trevor Loudon, FrogBlog, Kiwiblog and The Standard all these have strong links to political parties.
Tane from The Standard has explained how his blog ended up being temporarily hosted on Labour Party servers and has stated the blog is run by individuals - not the party. You have to accept Tane’s explanation as much as you have to accept that despite Farrar’s personal and professional links to National Party HQ and the clear National Party lines he runs - ultimately he makes his own choices about what he includes on his blog.
Farrar has asked questions about whether The Standard’s hosting arrangements create some sort of breach of the Electoral Finance Act. All very interesting, I am sure, but DPF better be aware that similar - or even more serious questions - could be asked of him. If you’re going to be snippy about another blog’s legal standing - you should at least get your own house in order. I am not sure Farrar really has thought about the commercialisation of his blog (it’s partially funded by ads), the generous donation in kind he receives from his hosting firm and his own professional links to the National Party. If he’s going to make a meal of The Standard’s hosting situation he should really have a think about his own much more precarious legal position. Or, as one cynic suggested, he has thought about it and is deliberately trying to provoke a conviction in order to become an EFA martyr.
Like Mardy and others, I’ve found the gum-flapping over at Kiwiblog to be risible - given Farrar’s own personal predicament. But that’s the nature of politics, I guess.
I for one will continue to regularly read Frogblog and The Standard and keep a wary eye on NewZeal and Kiwiblog with full knowledge of their respective linkages to political parties.
If you’re antsy about blogs with ties to political parties then there are a range of other political blogs without partisan links like our’s and a number of others (including most of heroes and homies list) which can satisfy your political interests.
James Sleep is back. He’s teamed up with Illuminatedtiger (not to be confused with Zentiger, the fundamentalist Christian writer on NZ Conservative (why does a hardcore Christian have a name featuring ’Zen’, a word from an adeist religion?)) Policyparrot, and Rebus to create NewZblog - “a fine blend of politics with a left twist”
The posts so far have been enjoyable, my favourite James’ story of receiving a copy of John Key’s Ambitious for NZ DVD (our review here). James reports that: “I put the CD (sic) in to find it made ticking sounds whilst in the drive. I took it out and tried again to get a message on my screen saying ‘Faulty disk, please remove immediately’.” Seems even electronics don’t want to be near Key.
I also love the “this person votes National” posts, exposing the ugly side of National’s base support. Would you want to ally yourself with this person, or this one, or Burqha Bob? Because that’s what you’re doing if you vote National.
I love DPF’s post on the NBR’s ringing endorsement of his blog. In the same item, the NBR also disses The Standard by dismissing its work as being simply “a Labour Party mouthpiece”. I mean, I would contest that. The Standard’s quality of posting is light years ahead of Farrar’s lazy clipping service. With, perhaps, the exception of DPF’s anti-EFB coverage - which has been a clipping service for National’s talking points. Tane’s response to the news the NBR doesn’t rate The Standard’s efforts was classic: “stink!”. Stink indeed. Let us remind ourselves: The NBR is to serious journalism what Kiwiblog is to serious political blogging.
kiwiblogblog is the brainchild of Icky and Zos. Icky departed a while back, but in addition to Zos and my posts we’re pushing a very busy Splodg a little harder and have added statistician and contrarian Wat to the mix. Between the four of us, we generally manage at least 4 or 5 posts a day. Over the last few weeks, the number of comments has taken off - some threads have had around 100 comments. For us, this means that kiwiblogblog is well established and, along with The Standard, sprout/bean and nih’s sites (and several others too), we’re effectively challenging a lot of National Party spin and providing some balance in the blogosphere.
So where too next dear readers? If we could use the analogy of childhood development, the right and left hemispheres of the blogosphere are pretty entrenched in parallel play with little genuine collaboration (RB and Farrar’s friendship aside). Perhaps that’s how it should be? Within a clearly centre-left blog, should there be room for alternative threads? Publicaddress, a blog with a far broader focus than just politics, continues to set the standard and is constantly testing the limits of blogging. I also saw an excellent example of online debating in Australia recently where two respected bloggers, Andrew Leigh and Andrew Norton, debated the merits of privatised education for a week. Each made a daily post that elaborated their own views and responded to the views expressed by the other blogger. Only after the week were comments enabled. Could such an experiment work here? I suspect that it might. Disabling comments however limits the appeal to many but how do you have a genuine discussion without risking being diverted by trolls?
Trolls are a fact of life. Online anonymity emboldens people to make outrageous comments without any responsibility. Even when stripped of their anonymity, some bloggers so crave attention they continue their extreme approach if only to maintain their hits. Moderators are an option but who wants to be a referee? A comments policy is another option, and one that I’m attracted to, but it also has limitations. None of us want to ban anyone, not least of all because it is damn near impossible to enforce, but neither do we want kiwiblogblog to degenerate in the way its namesake has.
Zos, Splodg, Wat and I will be doing some more thinking about developments over the Christmas break and we’ll probably try a few things in the New Year. So where to from here dear readers - any of your contributions or insights would be welcomed.
